TV Review: The Last of Us, Episode 3

If you came of age in the 70s, you may have committed the sin of taking Linda Ronstadt for granted, I know I did. To be fair, the songs on the charts were’t showcasing her amazing depth, her range, her brilliance. After the documentary Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice (Epstein, Friedman 2019) we were reminded of her clarion-clear voice and her ability to break genres. Hold on to that thought.

I’m sorry, so what does this have to do with yet another re-tread of zombies in a post-pandemic world, you say? Ah, that’s the thing.

The Last of Us is that clarion-clear voice that breaks genres.

Specifically, the third episode entitled, as a tribute to that stunning song Linda sang so well, Long, long time. A, for the most part, stand-alone episode that gives us a chance to regroup and understand that the horrors of the dystopian world— where tender love stories still exist, not despite the unrelenting undercurrent of fear, but because of it. Every beat, every scene crackles with an palpable tension and foreboding. This is sublime storytelling at its absolute best; television that commands attention. Not the ambient TV droning on in the background as we multi-task, this is the real deal.

Homophobes, it is time for you to go away now. In 116 minutes, writers Neal Druckman and Craig Mazin offer the gold standard of taut, lean love stories, brought to life beautifully by Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett. Their romance is so tender and real, it hurts. Anyone that can find fault in the sameness of these characters’ gender, is I believe, beyond hope.

Episode 4, which airs on HBO on February 5th will almost certainly return to that brutal world, where characters survive by any means possible. But Episode 3 emphasizes that surviving isn’t living. We’ll likely be reminded of Long, long time, when the Emmy nominations are announced, but in the mean time we can all be reminded, that without love, we are all, everyone of us, merely existing. Non-human, shuffling, halflings — not dead, nor alive.

See what I did there?